Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of computer architecture, and, more particularly, to the generation and distribution of a synchronized time source.
As the thirst for greater computing power has increased, the size of data centers has also increased. System and data center designers' desires for redundancy and fault tolerance have led to data centers being distributed over a wide geographic area. Furthermore, distributed computing and similar technologies have gained more importance. These types of applications have led to the development of technology to synchronize computing systems across widely dispersed geographic areas.
Similar developments have happened within computing systems themselves. System designers increase the number of processors and other components in a system to help increase computing power. Work may be distributed among the various components, and different components may finish the work allotted to them at different times. Thus, the system may reorder the completed work from the individual components, relying on timestamps that are synchronized between components to ensure the work is reordered properly.